RAPIDS AND THE ROAR

By GAYLORD STAVELY

ISBN 9781892327154

Price $19.95

The Rapids and the Roar tells the stories of twenty-one historic river running endeavors before and after Powell, and the reasons they ran the river, or tried. Their reasons – many and mixed – included ego, ambition, profit, prestige, challenge, compulsion, achievement, career-building, competitive advantage, publicity, official mapping, romance and, in one instance, descending the river “just for the hell-of-it.” Those pioneers blazed a “river trail,” and a flow of history and knowledge that led to the dawning of recreational river running, followed by mushrooming public demand and the beginning of intensified manipulation of river flows and river visitation.

The book relates how my life unexpectedly connected with that historic flow in the 1950s, just when damming of the San Juan, Green, and Colorado rivers had been authorized. The latter chapters relate adventures and challenges encountered before, during and after the dam, and my resolve to grow a small historic enterprise into Canyoneers, a modern river outfitting service, in the face of intensifying river and recreational controls.